Excerpts From
AP Story Appearing In Newspapers and
News Networks Across America
About LRO Members' Proxy
Proposals
(AP)— Shareholders of
Lucent Technologies Inc. on Wednesday
approved proposals urging the board of
the telecommunications-equipment maker
to link executive compensation more
closely to company performance.
One proposal,
approved with 54 percent of the votes,
requests the board to adopt a policy in
which at least 75 percent of stock
options awarded to senior executives be
based on "performance criteria adopted
by the board disclosed to shareowners."
It narrowly failed last year.
Another proposal,
which passed with 53 percent of the
votes, encouraged the board to exclude
the company's pension credit when
determining performance-based
compensation for its executives. The
Murray Hill-based company has said it
already does that.
Members of the Lucent
Retirees Organization sponsored the
measures, said group spokesman Ed
Beltram, because "the retirees have
borne the burden of the corporation's
efforts to return to profitability."
The company's annual
revenue of $9 billion are less than
one-third of what they were in the late
1990s, though Lucent returned to
profitability in 2004. Benefits for
retirees remain curtailed "yet the
compensation for top executives is
higher" than ever, Beltram said.
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